Overview
- State GOP chair Rob Axson filed an initiative application and a referendum petition with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, with six sponsors including Attorney General Derek Brown, former Rep. Rob Bishop and GOP committeeman Brad Bonham.
- The initiative-to-the-legislature seeks to remove Proposition 4 from state code and requires roughly 70,500 signatures across at least 26 of 29 state Senate districts by Nov. 15, along with at least seven public hearings statewide.
- The referendum targets the Legislature’s newly approved congressional map, commonly called Map C (also referenced as Map 6), and needs about 140,000–150,000 signatures in at least 15 districts within roughly 40 days to send the map to voters in November 2026.
- ABC4 reports that collecting the required referendum signatures by mid-November would prevent the law implementing Map C from taking effect regardless of a separate court decision set for Nov. 10.
- The filings land as 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson nears a Nov. 10 ruling under revived Prop 4 standards; Better Boundaries condemned the GOP effort as overturning voter will, while party leaders cast it as reinforcing legislative authority after courts revived limits on partisan gerrymandering and lawmakers adopted new statistical tests for maps.